June 14, 2002

POWERING UP
New to the world of electricity at home, Susan L. Brandt-Hawley nevertheless has made her name tackling environmental law cases all over the state.
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Susan L. Brandt-Hawley

One would think that, having lived 20 years without electricity, environmental and historical-preservation attorney Susan L. Brandt-Hawley would have filed a lawsuit against the electric company at some point for not extending its power lines to her home.
But now that she's had electricity for little more than a year, Brandt-Hawley, 50, is just happy to have heat - and a hair dryer.
"My favorite appliances are the refrigerator, the dishwasher and the toaster," she says.
Brandt-Hawley has her own practice, Brandt-Hawley Law Group, in a restored 1905 brick house in downtown Glen Ellen, near Sonoma.
She moved to the area in 1978 after graduating from the University of California, Davis, School of Law.
"I married a surfer-poet who makes wine for a living," Brandt-Hawley laughs.
The two live in a house they built near the 10-acre vineyard he tends, called Random Ridge.
Brandt-Hawley took what she calls an "idyllic setting" and from it created an impressive law career tackling California Environmental Quality Act and land preservation cases throughout the state.
"Environmental law is still developing because a lot of cases still have new issues that have no appellate case on point," she says.
Indeed, to date, Brandt-Hawley has had 10 historical and environmental preservation cases that have led the state Supreme Court and Court of Appeal justices to publish precedent-setting opinions.
"These days, a lot of my cases seem to involve water issues or cultural and historical issues," she says.
In addition to litigating, Brandt-Hawley has been faculty for the last few years for CEQA courses for judges through the California Judicial Council's Center for Judicial Education and Research. But now she can read her notes by lamplight instead of firelight.

- Christina Landers